The Boost VC Podcast

Here at Boost VC, we define a startup as an organism in which the founders work to attract the smartest, most dynamic people to solve the problem they believe is most important. Yes, their ultimate goal is to build a product. But more importantly, they are building a talented team that will actualize that product together.

CEO Sam Cole and CPO Sameer Baroova are the Cofounders of FitXR, a startup that is putting the fun back into fitness by way of award-winning virtual reality fitness experiences. In FitXR’s virtual gym, users have access to 20-plus hours of boxing and dance workouts choreographed by professional fitness instructors. Sam draws on his background in consulting and private equity to lead the FitXR team and Sameer’s experience in the gaming industry informs his work around product creation.

On this episode of Boost VC, Sam and Sameer join us to describe their dynamic as cofounders, discussing what they do to navigate disagreements and how brutal conversations early on served to strengthen their relationship. They explore their inherent drive to be entrepreneurs and share the lessons learned from their struggle to raise money for FitXR. Listen in to understand why fitness is the killer app of VR and learn how Sam and Sameer are building a dynamic team that makes progress—with or without their meddling!

Topics Covered

Why Sam & Sameer think fitness is the killer app of VR

• Most fun way to work out at home
• Transport self to completely different world

Public assumptions re: VR based on the hype of 2015

• Cumbersome tech with lots of cables
• For gaming only, doesn’t scale

How Sam & Sameer met and became cofounders

• Discussed idea at business school interview
• Founded FitXR 12 months after graduation

Why Sam & Sameer work well together as cofounders

• Shared ideals and work ethic
• Candid communication (brutal conversations)

How Sam & Sameer navigate disagreements

• Listen to each other and respect expertise
• Bring in data, ask team for input on decisions

How Sam & Sameer divide up responsibilities

• Sameer responsible for product creation
• Sam works with all department leads

The fundraising challenges Sam & Sameer faced

• Lessons learned from struggle (be cockroach)
• Easier as more understand + respect space

Sam & Sameer’s drive for entrepreneurship

• Encouraged by parents, support of partners
• Always entrepreneurial but risk averse

The most fun part of Sam & Sameer’s day-to-day

• Build team and watch company grow
• Progress made without their direct touch

Sam & Sameer’s definition of success

• Goal-driven to accomplish mission
• See work through to end (good or bad)

Connect with Sam & Sameer

FitXR https://fitxr.com/

FitXR on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WeAreFitXR/

FitXR on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wearefitxr/

FitXR on Twitter https://twitter.com/weareFitXR

FitXR on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5j5_pTobcYj50xfaxE68Ng

Resources

Beat Saber https://beatsaber.com/

Oculus Quest 2 https://www.oculus.com/quest-2/

Accepted https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384793/

Startup School https://www.startupschool.org/

Minecraft https://www.minecraft.net/en-us

FIFA 21 https://www.ea.com/games/fifa/fifa-21

Super Smash Bros. https://www.smashbros.com/en_US/

Planet Earth https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mywy

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/

Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC

Boost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/

Building a blockchain startup is hard enough. How do you educate the market around the technology itself? How do you communicate the business case for your product? But if you’re really looking for a challenge, build a company with a focus on innovation in the healthcare space—an industry notoriously slow to adopt advanced technology!
Katherine Kuzmeskas is the founder and CEO of SimplyVital Health, a startup building the blockchain infrastructure for healthcare. By way of open source and proprietary software, SimplyVital leverages the blockchain as a tool to increase data access and decrease the cost of healthcare, globally. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Kat cut her teeth in hospital administration, serving as Program Manager and Strategic Planner for the Yale New Haven Health system.
Today, Kat joins us to discuss the challenges of innovating in the healthcare space, describing the market’s slow adoption of advanced technology and the reteaching necessary around the role of the blockchain. She shares her interest in healthcare administration and explains how a year with Teach for America led to her idea for SimplyVital Health. Listen in for Kat’s insight on leading a global company and learn how persistence, organization and the will to win lend to her success as a startup founder.

Topics Covered

The function of SimplyVital
Blockchain infrastructure for healthcare
Proprietary and open-source software
Data access to decrease costs globally

Kat’s insight on leadership
Solo musician/athlete vs. band/team
Compare to CEO of global company

The challenges of innovating in healthcare
Slow to adopt advanced technology
Must understand business perspective

Kat’s advice for startups in the healthcare space
Identify customers, run product by them first
Remember that healthcare is business (ROI)

Kat’s path to founding SimplyVital Health
Clinical rotations in Ecuador
Interest in operations, administration
Teach for America student dashboard
Apply data-driven decision-making to healthcare

Kat’s strengths as a startup founder
Persistence (outwork others)
Extremely organized
Competitive, curious

How Kat educates the healthcare market on blockchain
Recognize long sales cycle
Reteach as necessary
Consulting arm, course on Udemy

How Kat financed SimplyVital
Self-funded first year
Equity round with venture investors
Revenue from purchase of tokens

Kat’s definition of success
Personal fulfillment
Doing good in world

Connect with Kat

SimplyVital Health https://www.simplyvitalhealth.com/
SimplyVital on Twitter https://twitter.com/SimplyVitalHQ
SimplyVital on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SimplyVitalHealth/
SimplyVital on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/simplyvital-health/
Kat on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinekuzmeskas/
Kat on Twitter https://twitter.com/kkuzmesk?lang=en

Resources

Blockchain and Healthcare on Udemy https://www.udemy.com/blockchain-and-healthcare/
Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century by Chuck Klosterman
http://chuckklostermanauthor.com/books/chuck-klosterman-x-tr/chuck-klosterman-x-hc

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/
Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/
Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC

“Venture capital, to me, is a way that we can raise money to help entrepreneurs who can go out there and do something for the world that just opens it up. I am always pushing for freedom, and I think it’s great to see venture capital be able to support entrepreneurs—wherever they are—to go out there and do something extraordinary for freedom.”

Tim Draper is the founding partner of Draper Associates as well as Draper Fischer Jurvetson (DFJ). His gift for assessing the fastest way to get a service to its users was instrumental in the success of viral communication networks like Hotmail and Skype. He has been an early investor in several wildly successful startups including Baidu, Tesla and Cruise Automation. Tim is recognized as a leading supporter of global entrepreneurship, and he was named #7 on the Forbes Midas List, #1 Most Networked Venture Capitalists by Always On, and World Entrepreneurship Forum’s 2015 ‘Entrepreneur for the World.’ In 2011, he created Draper University, a residential and online school that seeks to help talented young people meet their entrepreneurial goals.

Today Tim offers his definition of entrepreneurship and his journey from aspiring entrepreneur to venture capitalist. He shares his take on the ideal relationship between VC and founder and the sectors he is looking to invest in right now. We explore the world of cryptocurrency, discussing its potential to transform governance, how innovative VCs are trying new things with Bitcoin, and what the industry can learn from the P2P music and media revolution. Listen in to understand why Tim equates freedom with wealth and how to leverage the ripple effect of optimism.

Topics Covered

Tim’s definition of VC
Give entrepreneurs the means to ‘do something extraordinary for freedom’
Draper Venture Network is taking best practices global

Tim’s entrepreneurial evolution
VC affords opportunity to dabble

The relationship between a VC and founder
Look for a fit, VC that can bring something interesting to the table
Tim’s strengths lie in designing business models and networking

The sectors Tim is looking to invest in right now
Anything blockchain has to offer
Cryptocurrency has ability to transform real estate, insurance, banking and government

Tim’s take on how cryptocurrency will transform governance
World more elastic, flexible
Functions of government done more efficiently on blockchain

How innovative VCs are trying new things with Bitcoin
Tim was first to invest in company with cryptocurrency, use smart contract

The best advice Tim got from his VC dad
Personal connection matters

What cryptocurrency can learn from peer-to-peer music/media revolution
When status quo threatened, they will retaliate (e.g.: lawsuits, government intervention, competitive threat)
‘Technology wins all the wars’

Control vs. technological advancements
Countries relying on own currency lose out
Entrepreneurs, money go elsewhere

The ripple effect of optimism
Fear keeps people in boxes
Accomplish much more if you ‘just go’

Connect with Tim

Draper Associates http://www.draper.vc/
Draper Associates on Twitter https://twitter.com/drapervc
DFJ http://dfj.com/index.php
Draper University http://www.draperuniversity.com/
The Startup Hero on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUrqcWVF3uelGlK-6sXGjLgKu_JlhW_3l
Tim Draper on Medium https://medium.com/@TimDraper/the-pledge-f18e12013785
Meet the Drapers https://republic.co/meet-the-drapers

Resources Mentioned

The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs by William H. Draper III https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Game-Partnership-Capitalists-Entrepreneurs/dp/0230339948
Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem by Michael Rothschild https://www.amazon.com/Bionomics-Economy-Ecosystem-Michael-Rothschild/dp/0805019790

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/
Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/
Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC

‘There’s definitely some teams that are using [ICOs] and are able to fund their ideas better and more easily than the traditional VC way of doing things, but there’s just too many bad actors that just want a get rich quick scheme.’
Charlie Lee created Litecoin in 2011 while he was working as software engineer for Google. Litecoin is ‘the silver to Bitcoin’s gold,’ functioning as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that complements Bitcoin. In the long-term, Charlie sees Litecoin becoming a payment currency used at both physical and online stores, and he is currently working to promote widespread merchant adoption.
Charlie also spent four years with Coinbase, serving as the Director of Engineering for the digital currency platform. Today Charlie explains why he is not a fan of the ICO, discussing why it’s ripe for bad actors. We cover the future of cryptocurrency and the major debates in the ecosystem, including hard forks and Bitcoin Gold. Charlie shares his inspiration for dedicating his career to cryptocurrency as well as his ambitions for Litecoin. Listen in for Charlie’s insight around sidechains, stable coins, and the value of CryptoKitties.

Topics Covered

Chalie’s background
Encrypted chat startup in 1999
Created Litecoin while working for Google
Last four years at Coinbase

Charlie’s take on the rise of the ICO
Incentives not in line, receive money before product is built
Too many bad actors
Tack on token functionality as afterthought

The future of the cryptocurrency space
ICO regulations to reduce fraud

Charlie’s ambitions for Litecoin
Become payment currency (physical, online stores)
Widespread merchant adoption
Listed on exchanges

Chalie’s insight around stable coins
Crypto must be tied back to real world somehow
Governments will eventually release cryptocurrencies (i.e.: crypto-USD)

The deployment of sidechains
Litecoin is decentralized, secured by miners
Value of sidechain in smart contracts

Why Charlie is excited about Monero
Coin doing the right thing
100% private

Charlie’s take on the major debates in the ecosystem
Bitcoin Gold
Hard forks

What inspired Charlie to enter the crypto space
Bitcoin as better version of gold
Easy to transfer, store for nothing

How CryptoKitties create value
Limited supply of digital resource (scarcity)
Concern lies in scaling

Connect with Charlie

Litecoin https://litecoin.org/
Litecoin on Twitter https://twitter.com/litecoin
Charlie on Twitter https://twitter.com/SatoshiLite

Resources Mentioned

Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/?locale=en-US
Aragon https://aragon.one/
Monero https://getmonero.org/

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/
Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/
Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC

If you want to work in the cryptocurrency or fintech space, there is no doubt that Silicon Valley is the place to be in terms of access to opportunity, financing and a network of peers. But what if your home country happens to be an emerging market like South Africa? What is it like to be part of a foreign national startup in the San Francisco Bay Area? And how do you effectively manage a distributed team working from a different time zone?

Helghardt Avenant is the co-founder and CEO of Rehive, a platform working to help founders and businesses rapidly build, launch and scale fintech products by providing the necessary building blocks. Users mix and match a core set of features to their specific fintech use case, much the same way Shopify serves the eCommerce industry. Though Helghardt is based in Silicon Valley, 80% of Rehive’s engineering team works from his home country of South Africa.

Today, Helghardt joins us to share the idea behind Rehive and discuss the startup’s many iterations as well as its ideal customer. He offers insight around emerging markets like South Africa, explaining the country’s current crypto economy and what is necessary to inspire widespread adoption. Listen in as Helghardt describes the draw of Silicon Valley for aspiring engineers in the cryptocurrency space and learn how Rehive is streamlining communication among its distributed team!

Topics Covered

The idea behind Rehive
WordPress for fintech applications
Use available building blocks

Helghardt’s introduction to the crypto space
South Africa had limited online payment options
First experience moving money online = Bitcoin
Fascinated by promise of ‘better money’

Helghardt’s insight around emerging markets
Immediate needs don’t require advanced tech
Hard to generate interest without clear idea of value-add

South Africa’s crypto economy
Run by mining or traditional retail, banking
Success stories = EC2 and Naspers

Helghardt’s take on the draw of Silicon Valley
Access to opportunity, deal flow
Requires mental shift (cultural differences)

What South Africa needs to promote widespread adoption
Educate potential crypto distributors on volatility
Begin in areas where end-consumer comfortable

How to get people away from traditional currency
Enterprise tools for banks, governments and retailers
Issue digital denominations (bring into operational flow)

The ideal customer for Rehive
Brands with established user base
Retailers who want to play in financial space

Helghardt’s advice for aspiring crypto startup founders
Get to Silicon Valley for immediate support network
Find token sale, blockchain foundation looking for talent

The many iterations of Rehive
Stable wallet (hedging mechanism)
Bitcoin, Coinbase for South Africa

Helghardt’s tips for distributed teams
Establish guidelines for communicating on Slack
Work in sprints (3 months together for alignment)

Helghardt’s definition of success
Freedom to cross borders easily
Tap into other’s time and energy
Achieve things can’t do yourself

Connect with Helghardt

Rehive https://rehive.com/
Rehive on Twitter https://twitter.com/rehivehq?lang=en

Rehive on GitHub https://github.com/rehive

Helghardt on Medium https://medium.com/rehive-blog/fintech-platforms-b8b0238427ee

Helghardt on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/helghardt/

Resources

Amazon EC2 https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/

Naspers https://www.naspers.com/

Tencent https://www.tencent.com/en-us/

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr/dp/1400077303
Slack https://slack.com/

The Settlers of Catan https://www.catan.com/game/catan

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts https://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330537

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/

Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC